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Tansy Rayner Roberts

Friday Links Were Sorted Ravenclaw

Not sure I’ve linked to Kathleen Jennings’ The Dalek Game before, but I love her illustrative blog and this series which mashes up pencilled Daleks with famous book/movie titles are just adorable.

Linda Nagata gives an unvarnished account of her career trajectory as a female hard SF writer.

A discussion at the Mary Sue of genderbending in geek culture & cosplay – the impression I’ve got is that men dressing as women is a lot more acceptable in the cosplay community than this article suggests, though. I was delighted to hear there was a male Sarah Jane at the last Gallifrey, dressed in the Andy Pandy overalls!

Grant Watson reviews Summer Wars, a new anime movie which we watched recently with friends and I agree with Grant about how exceptional it is. A screwball family comedy and science fiction thriller combined! I love stories of big crazy families, and this handles that so well (though I was delighted today to find the wikipedia page that tells me who they all are and how they’re related to each other). I was amazed how much story and character was packed into the running length of a normal movie – and the combination of science fiction, contemporary issues (information hijacking, vulnerability of overstretched resources in the face of terrorist action) and deeply-felt emotions was fabulous. I particularly love the introverted hacker teen character Kazuma, and the sword-wielding matriarch grandmother, whose backstory is conveyed through mastery of the telling detail.

Chris Moriarty on the Women in SF conversation, and the danger of labels.

Thoraiya passed on a link to this fascinating article about the “chilly climate” for women in professional areas (such as the sciences) dominated by men, and one amazing woman who defined that term decades ago, as part of her work in the creation of policies to prevent gender discrimination. Most important quote: “This is changeable behaviour.”